Aftermath
by Rowan Morningstar
Summary: There are days it just doesn't pay to be the right hand goblin of His Majesty. Today is definitely one of those days.


Lad sighed. There were days it just didn't pay to be the right hand goblin of His Majesty. Today was most definitely one of those days.

"Sir! Sir!" a goblin tumbled in through the main doors to the throne room, losing his helmet in a noisy crash of steel on stone. He gathered himself up and put his helmet back on his wrinkled brown head. "Sir, more goblins here to see King, sir."

Lad shook his head. "Tell them to go home, come back tomorrow."

"Tried, sir. Not listening."

Lad sighed again, more heavily. The truth was that no one had seen the King since the girl had come and destroyed everything. "Well, lock the main doors and let them wait outside. No audience today." He looked around, his eyes pausing on the clock, its hands slowly turning. "And Gawp?"

"Sir?"

"Get some of your troops up here to start pulling rocks out of the throne room. We need to get it back in order for His Majesty." Not to mention that it would give them something to do and keep their minds off the fact that they hadn't seen their fearless leader stalking the halls today.

⃝ ⃝ ⃝

Fig shooed a chicken out of his way. "Stoopid chickens." He flopped down onto a rock and wiped his forehead. It was hot. Too hot to be moving stupid rocks, but the pretty girl and the big monster ruined his house. So he was moving rocks. He watched a cannonball totter by and laughed when it ran into a wall and fell down, then stood up to move another rock out of his doorway.

"Hi Fig!"

Fig turned around and almost dropped his rock when he saw Fina standing behind him. "Fina!" He looked around at the mess and blushed. "Sorry, girl ruined Fig's house." He frowned and muttered, "Stoopid girl", kicking at a small rock and sending it skittering across the ground.

Fina smiled. "Is ok. Rocks at Fina's house too. Fina help?" She pointed at one of the smaller rocks near his feet.

Fig smiled and nodded. "Uh-huh!" Maybe it wasn't so bad that the girl ruined his house…

⃝ ⃝ ⃝

Lad squeezed between a broken beam and the large door it had once held up, wiggling his way into the stair room. It was the last place he'd seen the King last night, when he was following the girl.

"Majesty?" He called quietly, anxiously listening to his voice echo off of the empty stone staircases. He hadn't expected an answer, but it had been worth a shot. He gathered his limited courage and headed down the first of the many staircases towards the center of the room.

When Lad reached the bottom of the first staircase, he grimaced. He'd picked the wrong stairs. This one ended abruptly on a ledge of a landing, dropping off on all sides but one, and that one was a wall. He looked around, trying to decide which staircase to try once he got back to the top, but was distracted by a glint of something shiny resting at the bottom of a staircase just a bit below where he was standing. Carefully, he worked his way to the edge of the landing and peered over the edge, fighting the urge to back up as quickly as he could and press his back against the cold solid wall behind him. He closed his eyes and took a very deep breath. There was no guarantee that if he went back up, he'd be able to find the shiny thing again when he came down another staircase. He gritted his teeth and laid down on his belly on the landing, scooting his feet out carefully over the edge. He'd always hated this room, and tried to avoid it as much as possible. It had too many stairs, and too many ways to get lost. He scooted out a little farther, wishing there were something more to hold onto than the frighteningly smooth surface of the ledge. His legs were dangling from the edge of the landing now. Halfway there. His heart practically stopped as he lost his grip momentarily and slipped farther down. He scrambled to get his grip back and hung there panting a moment, eyes shut tightly. Finally, he forced himself to slide farther out and open his eyes. He stole a quick glance beneath him then squeezed his eyes shut again, pressing his cheek against the reassuring stone. His arms were getting tired. He was going to have to move eventually, but the thought of it petrified him. He took a deep breath, steeled his nerves and counted to himself… three… two… he took one more deep breath… one… he paused only a moment, then saying a million silent prayers in his head, let go of the ledge.

The distance between him and the next set of stairs seemed to close in an instant, and he felt the welcome familiar sensation of stone beneath his feet. He opened his eyes, made sure he wasn't imagining it, then crumpled into a mass of quivering nerves on the cool, solid surface. Once he'd gotten his composure back, he looked around, trying to spot the object he'd seen from his higher perch. His breath caught in his throat. Where was it? Had all his valiant effort been for nothing after all? He sighed and his shoulders slumped. It just figured. Then he saw it out of the corner of his eye. It was two staircases down from his current position. He smiled, relieved, and started picking his way down the stairs, carefully avoiding the piles of broken stone that littered the way. When he reached the bottom of the steps, he stopped, frozen in his tracks. He had been right, the object he'd seen from the upper staircase had been one of His Majesty's crystals, lying abandoned on the cold stone floor.


End file.
